1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adapter arrangement for connecting an implanted heart pacemaker lead to a heart pacemaker to be implanted.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various heart pacemakers with different connector sockets are used today. In many cases, when a heart pacemaker is to be exchanged, the physician must place an adapter arrangement with fitting plug between the already implanted lead and the pacemaker. This adapter arrangement must be provided with an attaching plug which corresponds exactly to the connector socket of the pacemaker and fits together with the connector socket of the pacemaker so exactly that the system is completely tight on the lead side toward the pacemaker.
In order to obtain this tightness, the lead was in the past sealed with the adapter by manually gluing with a silicone adhesive. This method was found to be very cumbersome and impractical and problems with respect to tightness could not be excluded. Moreover, it was necessary to have in storage adapters for any possible type of plugs, so that the desired heart pacemaker selected individually for the patient could be connected to the lead. As a result, a large quantity of adapters with different plug connections had to be kept in store in hospitals. This was confusing and made storage complicated and raised the costs to hospitals.
The present invention starts from the finding that, in view of the multitude of heart pacemakers of different systems which are implanted in millions of patients, the connecting plugs will in the foreseeable future not be standardized.
For this reason, only the above-described complicated and expensive method could be used, in which final safety with respect to tightness could not be obtained. Thus, the technical solutions for exchanging heart pacemakers with implanted lead used today has to be considered unsatisfactory and in need of improvement.